December 3Jessica Martin Receives Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Research Award Jessica Martin, Senior Biological Sciences student, recently received a Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal Undergraduate Research Grant. Jessica's research, entitled "The Threat of Invasive Species to the Survival of Iguana Delicatissima," will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Mark Welch, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences.

December 3De La Cruz Student Travel Awards Three Biological Sciences students have been awarded a Dr. Armando De La Cruz Travel Award. The awards ceremony took place in Harned Hall on Friday, November 30, 2012.

This award was first established in 1997 and renamed after Dr. Killebrew's death in 1999 to honor his dedication and conributions to the field of plant pathology.

Recipients of the award must have demonstrated a high degree of academic achievement (3.0 GPA or better), be of good moral character and have demonstrated academic ability.

October 10Dr. Wallace Receives Award Dr. Lisa Wallace, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, was named a College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Eminent Scholar for Fall 2012. This is a 3-year award given to "acknowledge and retain exceptionally meritorious faculty who have achieved national recognition and enhanced the quality and stature of academic programs in Arts & Sciences."

September 20Biological Sciences Ph.D. Student Receives $5000 Grant Mr. Giuliano Colosimo received a Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Grant of $5000 to study the genetic structure of the Andros Island Iguana in the Bahamas. Giuliano's work will allow identification of "source" populations that can be prioritized for conservation management planning. Co-PI's on the grant are Drs. Welch and Wallace of Biological Sciences and Dr. Charles Knapp of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

August 31Dr. Vincent Klink's Paper on Cover of Plant Molecular Biology Dr. Vincent Klink and his students study diseases of soybean with many of those diseases being very important and impactful to Mississippi agriculture. One of the diseases that Dr. Klink and his students study is the plant parasitic nematode, a tiny microscopic worm-like organism that attack the roots of many different types of plants as well as some marine algae. During the process of infection, the nematode makes a feeding site (see image) from which it controls plant growth and its metabolism. The infection benefits the nematode at the expense of the plant.
Recently, Dr. Klink, along with his graduate student Prachi Matsye, published the identification and demonstration of how a gene called alpha-SNAP (alpha soluble NSF attachment protein) located within the major resistance locus, rhg1, is responsible for resistance. The gene is well known to play very important and central roles in the cell biology of organisms including humans, mice, fruit flies, free-living nematodes, as well as yeast. However, nothing was known about its role in plant disease. Future experiments aimed at identifying other genes that are important to how plants defend themselves against plant parasitic nematodes are underway. The goal is to determine the basic mechanism and cell machinery that underlies the process of resistance of plants to parasitic nematodes.

August 13Biological Sciences Student Volunteering in South Africa Jake Read, Biological Sciences major, is working with animals at Seaview Lion Park near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Follow the link for the story. - external link

August 10Armed Rasberry Field Research in Jamaica Armed Rasberry conducted field research during Spring Break 2012 for Dr. Mark Welch's lab. Follow the link for the article. - external link

July 26Harned Hall Renovation Receives AIA Merit Award At its annual convention, AIA Mississippi awarded Eley Guild Hardy Architects the prestigious AIA Merit Award for the Harned Hall Renovations.
The AIA Mississippi Design Awards Program seeks to encourage excellence and elevate the quality of architecture by recognizing and honoring works of distinction by its members and bring to public attention outstanding examples of architecture and design.
Harned Hall, home of the Department of Biological Sciences, was originally constructed in 1921. The building is an architecturally and historically significant structure, and was designated a Mississippi Landmark Building in 1990 by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Cotton Incorporated, established in 1970, was created in response to The Cotton Research and Promotion Act of 1966 (for the purpose of conducting a wide scale effort to recapture cotton's market share which was down and declining). Cotton Incorporated was created to combat loss of market share due to consumers’ infatuation with synthetic fibers. By 1983, the corporation had succeeded in curtailing share decline, and a long steady period of increasing consumer popularity and share growth resulted. Today, cotton can be found on store shelves everywhere in most products categories and cotton share is more than 60% of the marketplace.

The company sponsors research in the areas of Product Development and Implementation, Agricultural Research, and Fiber Competition.

July 9Biological Sciences/Seconday Education Major Benjamin Elam featured in MSU's Our People follow this link for the story - external link

June 27Collaborative Research Grants Return for Second Year A mini-grant funded by the Office and Research and Economic Development at MSU is back for a second year after a productive launch to the program last fall. The cross-college grants are designed to bring together researchers from throughout campus and across academic disciplines to foster collaboration.

Two Biological Sciences faculty members are part of this effort: Dr. David Chevalier, "Year 2: Understanding Heat Stress and Foliar Bleaching Mechanisms," and Dr. Job Lopez, "The Ecology of Relapsing Fever Spirochetes."

June 27Counterman Helps Find Butterfly Gene Years after sleeping in hammocks in the wilds of Peru and Panama, collecting hundreds of thousands of samples of colorful insects, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Dr. Brian Counterman, is now helping unlock a very difficult puzzle.

The challenge has involved a secret of the Heliconius butterfly, the orange, black, yellow, and red insect that has not easily communicated how all its radiant colors came to be.
(above is from Spring 2012 Maroon Research Magazine)

Dr. Counterman has been part of an international team using field experiments, genetic mapping, population genetics, and phylogenetics to study the biology and history of Heliconius. The team recently uncovered the gene responsible for the different red wing patterns.

Lean more about this significant research in the Science magazine article at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6046/1137.full?sid=3e48276a-2ca0-4400-a6a2-b8f23c7143c5.

June 15Visiting Researchers Dr. Yolanda Leon, visiting professor from INTEC (Santo Domingo Institute of Technology) in the Dominican Republic, recently conducted research on iguana conservation genetics in Dr. Mark Welch's lab for several weeks in May and June.

Rosanna Carreras, a student working with Dr. Leon in the Dominican Republic, accompanied her and assisted with the research here at MSU. Subsequently, Ms. Carreras has committed to joining the Biological Sciences Department as a graduate student to be supported on a Fullbright Fellowship starting Fall 2012.

June 15Visiting Students Conducting Research in Biological Sciences Sara Lynch, a student from the School of Veterinary Medicine at LSU, is here this summer working in Dr. Job Lopez's lab as an intern under the Summer Scholars Program through MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Jiten Gosai, a senior at Emory University, and Valerie Graham, a junior at Mississippi University for Women, received 2012 MS-INBRE Research Scholar Awards to support their summer research in the lab of Dr. Donna Gordon.

May 31Dr. Outlaw recipient of Henry Family Research Funds Dr. Diana Outlaw, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, is the recipient of a Spring 2012 Henry Family Research Funds Award. The award of $5000 will be used for Dr. Outlaw's research on the avian host's immune response to infection with malaria parasites.

May 16Graduate Student Research Award Robert (Rob) Outlaw was awarded a $1900 Graduate Student Research Award from the Society of Systematic Biologists to assist with expenses associated with his research in systematic biology.

The mission of the Mississippi IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence project (MS-INBRE) is to enhance the biomedical research capacity of Mississippi by:
developing a multidisciplinary State-wide network of faculty, students and technical staff; training and mentoring faculty and students, particularly at undergraduate institutions; developing an efficient pipeline to encourage students to continue in health-related careers; building a state-wide bioinformatics network; and providing critical research infrastructure.

May 3Dr. Mark Welch April Researcher of the Month for Arts & Sciences Dr. Mark Welch, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, received the College of Arts & Sciences Researcher of the Month Award for April.

Dr.Welch's current areas of research include molecular mechanisms that hasten evolutionary rates in sunflowers, and factors that govern the survival of small populations of iguanas. He was recently notified that he will be awarded an NSF grant (approximately $370,000 over 3 years) to fund his proposed sunflower research.

Dr. Welch is also extremely interested in providing undergraduate students with research experiences. Since his arrival at MSU in 2007, he has had 15 undergraduate students work in his lab. These students have received a combined total of more than $15,000 in grants, scholarships and awards for research, and six have been co-authors on refereed journal articles. He is a founding member of the Biology Undergraduate Research Program (BURP) and has coordinated this program since its inception 5 years ago.

April 20Ph.D. Student Receives Two Teaching Assistant Awards Lavanya Challagundla, Ph.D. student in Biological Sciences, recently received the Biological Sciences Department 2012 Ph.D. Teaching Assistant of the Year Award as well as the MSU 2012 Donald Zacharias Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year Award. Ms. Challagundlas's Major Professor is Dr. Lisa Wallace.

April 20MSU Women's Club Scholarship Andrea Rodgers, Biological Sciences Master's student, was recently awarded the Spring 2012 MSU Women's Club Scholarship. The award goes to female masters and doctoral students who demonstrate records of excellence in academics, leadership and service.

April 20Biological Sciences Research Assistant of the Year Prachi Matsye, Biological Sciences Ph.D. student, is the recipient of the Biological Sciences Department 2012 Research Assistant of the Year Award. Ms. Matsye's Major Professor is Dr. Vincent Klink.

April 18Students Place 1st and 2nd at MSU Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium Biological Sciences students Hanna Dorman and Jessica Martin placed First and Second in Poster Presentations at the MSU Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium hosted by The Shackouls Honors College. Undergraduates involved in faculty-guided research this academic year were invited to participate in the symposium.

April 132012 Annual Research Symposium The Biological Sciences Department's Biology Undergraduate Research Program (BURP) hosted the 2012 Annual Research Symposium on April 13 in Harned Hall Atrium. There were nineteen undergraduates as well as departmental Faculty and graduate students that presented posters describing their research in biological sciences. Three undergraduate researchers were presented the Downer Undergradute Research Award: First Place-Adam Cassella; Second Place-Hanna Dorman; Third Place-Whitney Wilson.

Dr. Don Downer, for whom the award is named, was present for the event and presented the awards along with Dr. Mark Welch, Faculty Advisor for BURP, and Dr. Nancy Reichert, Department Head.

Pizza was provided for all participants as well as a T-shirt, framed certificate, and custom-designed flashdrive.

April 10Mary-Celeste Reese Recipient of Both MSU and National Advising Award Mary Celeste (MC) Reese, Biological Sciences Instructor, is the Faculty recipient of MSU's 2012 Irvin Atly Jefcoat Excellence in Advising Award. The awards ceremony will be held Tuesday, April 24 at 2 p.m. in the John Grisham Room of Mitchell Memorial Library.

Ms. Reese also received the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Outstanding Advising Award (Faculty Academic Advising) in late April. This award honors individuals and institutions making significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising.

April 3Microbiology Student Receives PCSW Award Alexandra (Alex) Ruhl of Gulfport received a Student Leadership Award from The President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW). Ruhl is a microbiology major and Dean's List Scholar and also works for the department.

March 30Poster Presentation at the 5th Annual College of Education Research Forum On March 30, 2012, MSU's College of Education hosted Dr. Martha Kanter, Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Education as the keynote speaker for the 5th Annual Research Forum. Benjamin Elam presented a poster of the work performed in the lab of his research mentor, Dr. David Chevalier, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Dr. Chevalier's research focuses on the molecular mechanism of regulation of the cell-to-cell signaling mechanism in plants using Arabidopsis Thaliana as a model system.

Mr. Elam is an undergraduate student double majoring in Biological Sciences and Secondary Education (Biology concentration). He is a recipient of a Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow Baccalaureate grant offered through the U.S. Department of Education to encourage the growth of high quality science teachers in high-needs high schools.

Visit http://tctb.msstate.edu/aboutus.html for information about the "Creative Research-Based Science Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow" program at Mississippi State. - external link